Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
The book publishers were trying the same sort of thing, setting up Apple to be the big competitor to Amazon, but Amazon was able to use their contacts in the US government to go after the publishers and Apple on anti-trust charges. Apple decided that a major push into ebooks wasn't really worth it, so Amazon still doesn't have any major competition. Ironically, the publishers got their agency model pricing from Amazon once Amazon was no longer worried about competition.
Yes, the best way to combat piracy is to make the desired works available in desired format, at a reasonable price. Piracy is never going to be stamped out completely. For the vast majority of the reading public, DRM is not an issue.
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I agree with much of what you say here, so will focus on where we disagree. If book publishers were aiming at setting up Apple as competition for Amazon, they certainly have a funny idea of competition. Certainly there would be no price competition at a retail level nor of course at a non-existent wholesale level. Even competition on other things than price would be so limited as to be virtually irrelevant. What form do you think this competition would have taken? What benefits would it have had for the public?
I also find it surprising that you look at successful litigation by the Dept of Justice in a very straight forward price fixing cartel case, and say that Amazon had to use "their contacts in the US government" to have its valid and obvious complaint investigated. I'm sure both Apple and Amazon, like most large corporates, have their contacts in the US government, but I am not aware of any evidence that Amazon or any officials behaved improperly. Nor why Amazon's mysterious contacts were so much more effective than Apple's in this instance. I would be interested in the basis of this particular assertion. Likewise for the assertion that the publishers got their agency model pricing from Amazon?
I totally agree with you so far as the statements in your last paragraph are concerned.